Cavern
by Marshmallows rock
Summary: Approaching a planet causes the TARDIS to go mental. When the Doctor, Sarah and Harry arrive, they discover an old, waterlogged cavern may be the cause. And when Sarah hears voices in her head, it only adds another mystery to their burden. 4, Sarah, Harry
1. System goes wrong

Do I own it? Nah, it belongs to the Beeb.

DOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHO

The Doctor had been in situations where the TARDIS went haywire before, but nothing like this one. Sarah Jane and Harry had been thrown to the floor so many times it was pointless standing up, while he was racing about trying desperately to land the ship.

"Doctor!" Sarah howled as she tried to stand up only to have Harry break her fall. "What's going on?" She rolled backwards off Harry, stood up, fell over a chair and collided with the wall.

"It seems the planet we're headed for doesn't agree with the TARDIS," the Doctor gasped, racing from button to switch.

"You can say that again!" Harry groaned, smacking his head off the console.

And suddenly it stopped.

"Can we get up now?" Sarah said, lying upside down on the floor. "Because this is really quite uncomfortable, you know." She turned herself upright, and noticed with a feeling of exasperation that the Doctor had his head stuffed under the console again. "Harry, your forehead's bleeding." She passed him a handkerchief, which he gratefully took, and pressed it again the cut on his head.

While Sarah picked up the chair and the hat-stand, which had a habit of falling over, and having people subsequently fall over it, the Doctor reappeared.

"So what went wrong there?" Harry said, checking the cut.

"Oh no, if you must tell us use the short version, because I'll end up with a headache!" Sarah groaned, standing on his scarf

"Well, I was just making a little adjustment so that didn't happen again," the Doctor grinned, jamming his hat back onto his head. "Shall we go?"  
The three of them stepped out of the TARDIS, and took a look around.  
The place looked normal enough, but there was an uneasy feeling in the atmosphere.


	2. Captured again

"It doesn't feel right here," Sarah said.

"You always say that," the Doctor said, in a slightly reprimanding manner.

"Well I'm usually right aren't I?" she argued, practically jumping up and down as the Doctor started walking away. "Every time we come to a strange planet something bad happens, we get shot at or hypnotised or captured-"  
"Captured and near death situation seem to be the most popular ones," Harry agreed, watching Sarah with amusement. Despite the fact that the Doctor had at least six inches on her, she wasn't stopping. Small she may have been, retiring she was not.

The Doctor wasn't listening but he knew inwardly that it was going to go pear shaped somehow. This planet was near enough Earth normal but there was a tremendously uneasy feeling running through the place.

"So which way do we go?" Harry said; Sarah was too out of breath after her rant.

The Doctor looked around. " That way."  
"Why that way?" asked Sarah, getting her breath and energy back very quickly.

"We Time Lords have a superb sense of direction," he said, striding away, "And this is the way to go."  
"That means he's guessing," Sarah whispered to Harry, as they followed him.

They walked for about half an hour, and saw absolutely nothing, until they came to a cave.

"I told you we should have come this way!" the Doctor grinned, triumphantly, as he looked inside the cave entrance.  
Suddenly, a voice yelled from behind them, and several men in soldier's uniforms were towards them.

DOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHO

"I told you!" Sarah protested about ten minutes later. Harry was impressed; he was expecting her to start up again before five minutes had gone by. They had been made to answer questions by the soldiers, and Sarah had just come back from her own interrogation.

The Doctor was playing with a yo-yo. He was ignoring Sarah. In fact he was ignoring everybody, even when the soldier had told him to come and answer his questions. It was only when the solider threatened to shoot Harry and Sarah that he finally responded.

"So what sort of stuff did they ask you?" Harry whispered to her, as the Doctor was lead out.

"Oh, just the usual sort of stuff we get asked when we get held at gunpoint," she replied, tossing her dark hair over her shoulder. "Who are you, where did you come from, what were you doing down there, et cetera."  
"Did they say why we were dragged up here?" he continued, still quite nonplussed about this.

"No. It's funny but when we get captured, can you remember anyone actually telling us why?" Sarah was starting to laugh.

Harry was smiling too, as he was lead out and the Doctor returned, in a thoroughly bad mood, so it was about ten minutes later before anyone spoke.  
"Did they tell you why we were captured?" Sarah was trying to amuse herself by lying on the bench with her feet right up against the wall so her body was at a 90-degree angle.

The Doctor sighed. "Yes. Apparently, a strange force operates from there, so the public are forbidden from going down there." He was getting less angry, and starting to grin.

"Sounds right up our street," Sarah said, swinging herself upright and moving over, just as Harry came back into the room.

"What sounds right up our street, old thing?" he asked, choosing to ignore her irritated expression, and mutter of "if I told him once".

They explained, and soon afterward were let out of the place where they had been taken to after being captured.

"Ooh, it's turned into a really strong wind!" Sarah gasped; indeed it had, quite suspicious considering it was completely calm half an hour ago.

"Are we going back to the cave, Doctor?" Harry said.

"Indeed we are, Harry, you really are improving," the Doctor grinned delightedly, turning around and walking off.

Harry rolled his eyes, and was about to walk off as well when he noticed there was something wrong with Sarah. She was standing, looking after the Doctor, an unusually glazed expression in her eyes, and she was shivering violently.

"Sarah?" Harry approached her tentatively, he was starting to think she was right about feeling uneasy.

Suddenly she snapped out of it, and returned to normal.

"Well, are you coming?" she said, grabbing his hand, and picking up the Doctor's hat which had blown off. Together they raced after him, although both with huge misgivings. There was clearly a bigger force at work here.


	3. Something in my head

"I thought we were going to investigate this cave, not go hiking!" Sarah protested after a further forty minutes of walking.

"Well, its good exercise," the Doctor said

"And is your superb sense of direction working?" Harry said, slightly sceptically.

"Of course it is! It always does" the Doctor said, sounding offended. The wind was getting stronger as they went on and it did not make for an easy trek.

"You've dropped your hat, Doctor," Harry said, ducking to avoid getting hit with the scarf, as the Doctor swung round to look for hit lost hat.

"Would you keep still?" Sarah gasped, having taken the material full in the face. "I've got your hat." She jumped up to try and jam it on his head but couldn't' reach.

Finally the cave came into sight. Sarah started to feel weird again.

"Doctor, I don't like it here," she said, as the trio drew closer to the cavern. "I keep feeling that we're being watched, and I think we are."  
"Oh, rubbish. I don't feel anything. It's probably just your imagination," the Doctor said, ducking so he could get into the cave. "You two stay here, I'll be back in a jiffy.'

"May as well have a rest," Harry agreed sitting down where he was joined a second later by Sarah. He was going to ask her something when he noticed she had the glazed expression back in her eyes.

"Are you sure you're OK, old girl?' he said. It was clear she was having serious doubts about it and she was not the only one.  
"Why do we always have to come to places that mess with your head?" Sarah moaned, snuggling up against Harry's shoulder for comfort.

"Eh? How do you mean?"  
The truth was that Sarah had been hearing voices in her head since they had come out of the soldier's building.

_Why are you here? Go away, it isn't safe!_

_**Don't listen to that. You must come to the Cavern!**_

_The Cavern is evil! It will rule you!  
__**No! Come to the Cavern!  
**_Cavern...cavern...cavern...

"Sarah!" Harry started shaking her gently, starting to panic slightly.

"Voices," she whimpered in barely more than a whisper. "They keep arguing...I think I'm going mad!" Even so she was starting to calm down, and ended up telling Harry the whole thing, just as the Doctor returned.

"Well there's a welcome," he said cheerily in response to their ashen faces. "Come on, down we go!"  
"NO!"

Taking Harry completely by surprise, Sarah slid her slim wrist out of his grip and rushed over to the Doctor.

"I am not going down there, and you can't make me!" Sarah half screamed. Harry was thinking why isn't the Doctor picking up on the fact something's wrong?

"Doctor, I really don't think-"he began but was cut off by a loud scream from Sarah who fell to the floor, tears streaming down her face and clutching her skull.


	4. The Astrin

Hello! To clear things up here, underline is good thoughts, bold is evil thoughts and bold italic underline are Sarah thoughts.

DOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHODOCTORWHO

Harry tried to get near Sarah to try and see what was troubling her, but she was flailing about to such an extent that it looked like it was nearly impossible to even get near her.

"Leave her, Harry," the Doctor said, quietly.

"Why? She needs help, Doctor," Harry said, sounding and feeling worried and confused in equal measure.

"Give it about a minute and she'll calm down. She can't maintain such a high level of emotion for long," the Doctor said, trying to ignore Sarah's frantic screams that were echoing around the walls of the cavern.

Sarah, meanwhile was having to endure one of the most painful mind battles she could remember:

Stay away! Haven't I given you enough warning? You don't want to come here, you can't come here!

_But I have to!_

**There, see! You're right child, you must come here.**

_But then again, isn't it a bit dangerous? If you're so keen to get me down here and somebody else is so keen to stop me, there has to be something wrong here._

There is something wrong! Something evil! You have to go away, Sarah? You and the Doctor and Harry must go away.

**Don't listen to that rubbish! You come here! The Astrin want to see you!**

_What's the Astrin?_

**The Astrin is the ruler of all things of this planet as well as the Army of the Dead, my child. It has expressed a special wish to see you and your friends. And the Astrin cannot be disobeyed.**

"Doctor!" Sarah gasped, coming completely back to normal, and sitting up. Harry and the Doctor both jumped, and she lay back down again exhausted.

"What is it Sarah?" the Doctor said, slipping his hand into his pocket and reaching for the sonic screwdriver to see if he could extract any information of an extreme nature from Sarah.

"These voices - don't you dare zap me with that screwdriver, Doctor - one keeps telling me not to go down into the cavern and the other keeps telling me to go down. And something about an Astrin and the Army of the Dead but I didn't know what they were."

The Doctor had gone chalk white.  
"Did you say the Astrin?"


	5. Rocks

Sarah looked as puzzled as Harry felt

Sarah looked as puzzled as Harry felt. "What's wrong? What exactly are the Astrin?"  
The Doctor refused to look at either of his human companions, instead turning to face the wall.

"The Astrin are old enemies of mine, very old. One might describe them as a cross between humans and demons. Their army consists of nothing but the enemies they have killed."

"So once they knock you off, you swap sides?" Harry frowned. "Why on earth do they do that?"

"Because then it makes the opposing army unwilling to fire on their own people, deceased or not. Then the Astrin can move in for the kill, simply sweep any opposition away like rag dolls and move on, conquering anyone who stands in their way."  
"They don't sound a very pleasant bunch," Harry said, pulling Sarah up from the floor.

"They are not. And if they are here, which they almost certainly are, then we have to do something about it," the Doctor said gravely, pulling out a torch from one of his many pockets.

"Does this mean I have to put up with a debate going on in my brain?" Sarah groaned, rubbing her eyes.

"Well that depends on how quickly we can get moving then, doesn't it?" The Doctor's manic grin was back in place, so wide Sarah could see it even it in the semi darkness of the little entrance.

The cavern was very dark, and the Doctor's little torch did not do much to help alleviate the blackness. They could hear water somewhere nearby and raindrops occasionally fell from the roof.

Harry followed Sarah's slim outline in the dark. He was quite nervous about what they were going to do, particularly as the doctor had not really outlined it very well to them.

Sarah suddenly stopped dead in front of him, so that Harry walked straight into her, and in return was whispered at indignantly. The Doctor had vanished from sight.

"Doctor?" Sarah's voice cut through the air. "Where on earth are you?"

"Down here. There's been a massive rock pile set up as a barricade and I've just tripped over it. We'll have to climb it." They could hear him scrabbling up the rock pile.

Sarah and Harry followed, occasionally losing their footing as a rock moved from under their feet.

"Couldn't you just use your scarf as a rope, Doctor?" Harry panted as he finally joined him at the top. The Doctor looked rather annoyed at that sentiment. "Why? I'd be strangled. Really Harry, you must learn to think these things through," and on that he turned away and looked around with the torch.

"No, I meant take it.-oh, never mind," Harry sighed, as Sarah arrived at the top of the pile.

"Don't worry about it," she whispered, coming to sit beside him. "He's just being obtuse."

"Ah." The Doctor's voice floated over

"Why does that not fill me with confidence?" Sarah retorted, as the Doctor came back to join them.

"Take a look down there," the Doctor said, handing Harry the torch.

A drop of about fifteen metres and at the bottom was a deep shimmering pool of water.

"How do we get down there?" Harry said, giving the Doctor back his torch.

"We jump."  
There was a rather stunned silence.

"You're joking." Sarah was the first to recover.

The Doctor shook his head. "No. It's the only way down. I'll go first." And with that, he pushed himself over the top of the rock pile. They waited until they heard a loud splash.

"How deep is it?" Sarah yelled down to him.

"Quite. But it's safe to come down," came floating back up.

"Oh, lovely," Sarah muttered, steeling herself to jump down. Harry was watching her. "You're not afraid are you, old girl?" he said.

She looked back at him haughtily. "Nope." He watched amusedly. Even if Sarah was terrified, which she was, pride would never admit it.

With a small squeak of terror, Sarah vanished, and when he heard her hit the bottom, Harry pushed himself over the side of the rocks. Cold air rushed up into his face, which was soon replaced by cold water when he hit the bottom. Harry pushed himself up towards the surface, and saw Sarah scrabbling over to the water's edge where the Doctor was wringing out his scarf.

"That...is...freezing," Sarah shivered, pushing her sopping wet dark curls out of her eyes.

Harry was watching the water. Waves were rippling over the surface was something rising from the depths. "I say, Doctor," he said, rather worriedly, "What's all that?"  
The Doctor seemed furious or panic stricken, they couldn't tell which, as the creature from the deep glided slowly towards them. It looked like a normal human being - except at the same time it didn't. Sarah was watching, wide eyed and still dripping wet. "Is that the Astrin?" she whispered.

The creature spoke. "Well, well, well, Doctor." it chuckled, "Fancy seeing you here."  
"What are you doing here?" the Doctor hissed through clenched teeth.

"We've only come to reclaim the one needed by the Astrin," it said, silkily. These words sent chills down Harry's spine.

It was pointing at who it wanted. But it wasn't Harry. It wasn't the Doctor.

The Astrin wanted Sarah.


End file.
